- US regime moves $288 million in stolen bitcoin, ether to Coinbase Prime
Source: CoinDesk
“The U.S. government just staged its [stolen] crypto for an exchange, and it took an extra hop to get there. Wallets tied to the government moved about $288 million in [stolen] bitcoin and ether onto Coinbase Prime over roughly half a day on Monday, blockchain data from Arkham shows. The ether went direct, while the bitcoin took a detour through intermediary wallets first. The movements are despite an executive order in March 2025 by President Donald Trump, which designated [stolen] bitcoin for the country’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and said it should not be sold.” (07/14/26)
- NY: Hochul orders election year “pause” on new large-scale data centers to power AI
Source: New York Post
“New York state regulators won’t issue environmental permits for large-scale data centers for the next year, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday. Hochul will sign an executive order implementing a ‘moratorium’ on new air permits for so-called ‘hyperscale’ data centers trying to tap into the Empire State’s electrical grid for up to a year. … Roughly half of New York voters polled by Siena University last month said they thought a one-year moratorium on large data centers was good for the state, while 21% said they thought it was a bad idea and 17% indicated they were somewhere in the middle.” (07/14/26)
- Israel: Knesset passes law sought by ultra-Orthodox to skip mandatory military service
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a law declaring the study of Jewish religious texts a ‘fundamental value’ of the state, a move widely seen as strengthening the ultra-Orthodox community’s case for exemption from mandatory military service. … For decades, most ultra-Orthodox Jewish men have avoided Israel’s mandatory military service by registering as full-time religious students. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled this exemption illegal, and the military—stretched thin after more than two years of war—has demanded more recruits. Rather than directly legislating an exemption, which the court would likely strike down, the coalition took an indirect route: drafting a ‘Basic Law’—a type of legislation with quasi-constitutional weight in Israel—declaring Torah study ‘a core national value’.” (07/14/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-knesset-passes-law-ultra-orthodox-seek-skip-military
- EU bans gold imports from Sudan to curb money financing the war
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“The European Union (EU) has banned the purchase, import and transfer of gold from Sudan, saying the trade has become a key source of financing for the country’s civil war that erupted in April 2023. The conflict between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, forcing more than 14 million people from their homes. Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers and its vast reserves have become a crucial source of revenue for both sides, according to rights groups. EU foreign ministers approved the measures alongside a ban on exports to Sudan of mercury and cyanide, chemicals widely used in gold mining.” (07/14/26)
- China: Regime Purges Third Politburo Member in Deepening Anti-Graft Drive
Source: US News & World Report
“China has expelled Ma Xingrui, a former Politburo member, from the ruling Communist Party on corruption charges, making him the third sitting member of the elite decision-making body to be purged since 2025 as President Xi Jinping intensifies his anti-graft campaign. Ma, who also served as the deputy head of the central rural work leading group, was placed under investigation in April over suspected ‘serious violation of law and discipline’ – the party’s euphemism for corruption. Investigators found that Ma had sought benefits for others in the selection and appointment of officials and improperly arranged jobs for others, Xinhua reported.” (07/14/26)
- Trump-backed Daylight Saving Time bill clears key House hurdle
Source: Fox News
“A bipartisan push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent is heading for a chamber-wide vote after clearing a key House hurdle. The House Rules Committee on Monday teed up a floor vote on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would allow states to enact Daylight Saving Time year-round — with an option to opt out. The committee approved the rule in a 6-4 vote. The measure has the support of many coastal lawmakers and President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly urged Congress to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and end the twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks — a practice currently observed by every state except Hawaii and most of Arizona.” (07/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-backed-daylight-saving-time-bill-clears-key-house-hurdle
- US Treasury yields rise as Fed rate hike expectations grow ahead of June inflation print
Source: CNBC
“U.S. Treasury yields rose again on Tuesday as traders’ expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes grow amid an increasingly fractured Middle East ceasefire. It comes ahead of Fed chair Kevin Warsh’s debut testimony before Congress later this week and inflation data for June, due later in the session. The key 10-year Treasury yield — the main benchmark for U.S. government borrowing — was more than 1 basis point higher in early trade, at 4.6278% by 3:45 a.m. E.T. Yields on the 2-year Treasury note, which are more sensitive to short-term Federal Reserve rate policy, rose by more than 2 basis points, at 4.2900%. The 30-year bond yield, meanwhile, rose 1 basis point to reach 5.1093%.” (07/14/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/14/treasury-yields-rise-as-fed-rate-hike-expectations-grow.html
- CA: Newsom signs new affordable housing bill in Oakland
Source: SFGate
“Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a housing bill Monday that will change how the state finances and delivers new affordable housing units. … Assembly Bill 179 is a housing budget trailer bill, aimed at modernizing California’s affordable housing finance system and strengthening the state’s impact of housing investments. The bill will reduce the cost of building affordable housing by an estimated $60,000 to $70,000 per unit through one-stop shop financing reforms and impact fee changes. The legislative changes are designed to take out extra administrative steps and fees in the process for building affordable housing units across the state.” (07/13/26)
- Brazil: Court bars Bolsonaro’s son from visiting ex-president for 90 days
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Brazil’s Supreme Court has barred presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro from visiting his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, for 90 days after ruling that the pair had breached the terms of the former leader’s house arrest. Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the order on Monday after Flavio read a handwritten letter from his father during a social media livestream. Jair Bolsonaro – a far-right figure who was found guilty in September 2025 of plotting to overturn the result of the 2022 election that he lost to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – is prohibited from using social media or communicating through third parties while serving his sentence under house arrest. The 90-day restriction will remain in place until after the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, scheduled for October 4, preventing Flavio from meeting his father during most of the campaign.” (07/14/26)
- Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks
Source: Reuters
“The US military carried out a third night of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said he is reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping. The United Arab Emirates says at least two tankers came under Iranian fire in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran insists it has the right to control. Trump earlier declared the United States would ensure the Hormuz strait is open and said it would charge a 20% fee. Bahrain and Jordan say they have intercepted new Iranian attacks on Tuesday as Tehran retaliates with missiles and drones across the Gulf.” (07/14/26)
- Judge halts Trump’s settlement with IRS
Source: The Hill
“A federal judge Monday voided President Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), finding that the lawsuit that served as the hook for the $1.776 billion so-called Anti-Weaponization fund amounted to collusion as the two parties were never truly averse. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after she was asked to reopen the case [by] intervenors who said a settlement to create an ‘anti-weaponization’ fund tainted the case. … Williams found that Trump’s $10 billion case against the IRS was ‘brought for an improper purpose—to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”’ As part of the order, the judge also referred Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito to the Florida bar for consideration of disciplinary action after finding that sanctions were warranted.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5966060-trump-irs-settlement-voided-federal-judge
- Hungary: Parliament passes constitutional amendment to remove Orbán-era president
Source: ABC News
“Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at removing President Tamás Sulyok, part of an effort by the country’s new leadership to dismantle the autocratic political system of former prime minister Viktor Orbán. After winning in a landslide election in April, Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power. The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of ‘restoring rule-of-law democracy,’ passed with 139 votes for and six against. Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session.” (07/13/26)
- SC: McMaster appoints Graham’s sister to finish his US Senate term
Source: NBC News
“South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, to serve the remainder of the late Republican senator’s term, which ends in early January. … Graham Nordone will finish her brother’s six-year term, which ends Jan. 3. The senator died Saturday at the age of 71 of what was preliminarily diagnosed as a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries, his office said Sunday. … It’s unclear if Graham Nordone would want to run for her brother’s seat. Graham had been seeking a fifth term in the Senate in this year’s midterm elections after defeating a wealthy GOP challenger in his state’s Republican primary last month.” (07/13/26)
- MN: Prosecutors get long-withheld evidence in Good, Pretti murders
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Previously withheld evidence regarding the [murders] of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the [murders] that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown. ‘Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,’ the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media. The newly obtained evidence includes Good’s car, statements, police body-camera video and other evidence that federal officials had previously withheld in the [murders].” (07/13/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/renee-good-alex-pretti-minnesota-evidence
- Democrats’ affordability scam collapses in states they actually run
Source: Fox News
by Liz Peek“Democrats are lying to voters, claiming to be the party that can deliver ‘affordability.’ Nothing could be farther from the truth. … Democrat-run cities and states are, with few exceptions, the most expensive in the nation. The reasons include pro-labor rules that drive up wages and costs, regulatory overreach that creates hurdles and delays, energy policies that inflate electricity and gasoline bills, and reckless spending, which leads to high taxes. High taxes, another Democrat specialty, inflate the price of everything as they are passed along to the consumer.” (07/14/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-democrats-affordability-scam-collapses-states-they-run
- On the Manchester model
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Miles Saltiel“Burnham’s Manchester model is a game of bait and switch. It uses funds obtained from the Public Works Loan Board, an arm of the Treasury, which explicitly declines to look at the uses to which its money is put. Manchester loans these funds on to local projects, also free of arm’s-length scrutiny, in effect using the national credit rating for local projects. This brings to mind other public borrowers who believed that big Daddy would keep them out of trouble (bankers call malarkey of this kind ‘moral hazard’) leading to, eg, Argentine defaults, where provincial profligacy hides behind central guarantees. The Manchester model is not yet a big thing in the UK, but Burnham gives the impression that he believes he’s found the secret sauce.” (07/14/26)
- Cory Doctorow Is Making Peace with AI
Source: Washington Monthly
by Anita Jain“Less than four years after ChatGPT’s debut, we are nowhere near understanding the role AI will play in our lives. Will it be as transformative as the internet? Will it cause mass unemployment? Will the next generation forfeit its capacity to think to AI models? Will we all soon be using AI agents to book our hotels and flights? How to scythe through the bramble? Cory Doctorow, a science fiction novelist and one of our keenest observers of technology, is out with The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late, a companionable guide to the subject.” (07/14/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/07/14/cory-doctorow-is-making-peace-with-ai/
- Tucker Carlson’s left-right, third party dream
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter“The popular conservative media giant has left the GOP and says exiles from both parties need to work together on matters of ‘war and finance.'” (07/14/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/tucker-carlson-third-party/
- Trump Guts Two National Monuments “At the Behest of Polluting Corporations Who Seek to Ravage Them’”
Source: Common Dreams
by Jake Johnson“US President Donald Trump on Monday signed proclamations dramatically shrinking the size of two national monuments in Utah, eliminating roughly 3 million acres of protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante and potentially opening the beloved, wildlife-rich areas to industry exploitation. Trump’s proclamations, issued at the urging of Utah Republicans including Sen. Mike Lee, aim to reduce Bears Ears to just under 121,100 acres (down from nearly 1.4 million) and Grand Staircase-Escalante to 181,541 acres (down from 1.87 million). … During a signing ceremony on Monday, flanked by Utah Republicans, Trump characterized his scaling back of monument protections as an effort to give land ‘back to the people of Utah.’ The president falsely claimed that people could ‘virtually not even walk on’ the lands under the protections he targeted.” (07/14/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-shrinks-national-monuments
- Making Government Work From Within
Source: Liberal Currents
by Christopher Whitaker“As we think about what a new reconstruction may look like, one of the major points of tension will be the rules and regulations that bind the actions of the government machinery. One the one hand, the rules cause friction in the gears that get things done. Procurement is slow. Hiring is slow. Policy changes are slow. It will be immensely frustrating to those coming in to fix the government to be told to be patient after so much damage has been done. However, those rules are there for good reason. After all, hiring your buddy in a no-bid contract is how you get a reflecting pool full of algae.” (07/14/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/making-government-work-from-within/
- After Ankara, Deep State and Euro Hawks Celebrate Wins
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger“As a candidate, Donald Trump famously promised to end the war in Ukraine ‘within 24 hours’ of taking office. This past week, he acknowledged that Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure represent an ‘escalation’ in the conflict and offered new support for Kiev’s war effort. ‘It’s an escalation,’ Trump said, ‘but it’s also an escalation that can help lead to an end of the war.’ … That view—which sees Ukraine’s war as winnable, if only the West will send enough money and weapons—has been the consensus among foreign policy elites since this thing kicked off. Now, aided by Western news outlets, hawks in Europe and our own national security bureaucracy are successfully selling this narrative to a gullible president who had previously resisted their blandishments.” (07/14/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/after-ankara-deep-state-and-euro-hawks-celebrate-wins/
- Chekhov, the Military Budget, and Endless Wars
Source: CounterPunch
by Bruce Altschuler“Diplomacy is difficult. It requires patience together with deep knowledge of the country on the other side and the issues under negotiation. The nuclear agreement Barack Obama negotiated with Iran took nearly two years and was 160 pages long. The negotiating team included experienced diplomats and scientists compared to Trump’s team of two real estate developers, one of whom is his son-in-law. Meanwhile, the American military, obviously far superior to that of Iran, presented another option. As Anton Chekhov put it, albeit in a very different context, ‘One must not put a loaded rifle upon the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.'” (07/14/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/14/chekhov-the-military-budget-and-endless-wars/
- The New York Times Explainer for Its Catch-and-Kill Report to Benefit Graham Platner
Source: Townhall
by Brad Slager“Over the weekend, The New York Times came out with an overview of its coverage last month of the Graham Platner sexual assault allegations. It was just over one month ago when the outlet delivered its quasi-exposé on three women detailing troubling experiences with the Senate candidate who possesses no discernible resume. The primary focus was on Lyndsey Fifield, and there have been contentious reactions about that report—Fifield included. … If you are wondering why The Times is now doing this dose of introspection, it is because Fifield has since taken her story—and evidence—to CNN, and the network was able to do what The Times reporters Katie Glueck and Lisa Lerer were incapable of doing, and that is to corroborate Fifield’s details with others. This becomes an even more scalding hit to the paper’s credibility.” (07/13/26)
- The Moon as a Test Case for Coercion Theory: US Interests in a New Space Race
Source: Hoover Institution
by Dan Berkenstock & Walter J Manuel“China aims to land taikonauts on the Moon before 2030—before the US returns to the lunar surface—and set the operating rules that will govern future lunar activity. Traditional deterrence won’t work in a domain where the US is unable to project military force, and space treaties lack enforcement. This essay presents four conflict scenarios to show what’s at stake, and proposes a near-term US strategy of accelerated missions, allied coordination, clear red lines, and concrete military doctrine.” (07/14/26)
https://www.hoover.org/research/moon-test-case-coercion-theory-us-interests-new-space-race
- The Most Important Educators Are You
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Angelo Monaco“When mainstream schooling, media, and digital spaces reflect a dominant ideological lean, proactive conversations at home become essential to giving children a balanced perspective. Actively engaging your children in the principles of freedom, liberty, and natural rights equips them with the critical thinking skills needed to question prevailing narratives rather than absorb them passively. By introducing these foundational concepts early, you provide them with a moral and philosophical anchor, ensuring they understand that true rights are inherent to the individual, not granted by the state.” (07/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-most-important-educators-are-you/
- If Democrats Want to Win, They Should Stop Spending In Red States
Source: Project Liberal
by Hamsters“There’s a familiar temptation in politics. The temptation to treat federal funding like a tool for ideological compliance. Starve blue states for funds, punish them until they fall in line, and run your victory lap. Turn the thermostat the other way, and red states get the same harsh treatment. The entire political game becomes less about good governance and more about finding which backs to scratch and which backs to stab. This isn’t a proposal for selective use of power but a decentralized, non-partisan strategy. Deciding which rural areas get flooded with cash while other areas starve for cash is bad.” (07/13/26)
https://projectliberal.substack.com/p/if-democrats-want-to-win-they-should
- Silicon Valley Needs Washington After All
Source: The American Prospect
by Chris Hughes“First, Silicon Valley’s founders believed they didn’t need government. Then they believed they could demolish it. Now they’ve decided to use it where they can and appease it where they must. This latest turn may usher in a new era of AI industrial policy.” (07/14/26)
- The Opportunity Cost Of College
Source: Independent Institute
by Scott Beyer“Economists use the term opportunity cost to describe the value of the best alternative that is sacrificed when making a decision. In the case of college, that means the income students don’t earn, the work experience they don’t gain, the promotions they don’t receive, and the businesses they never start because they spent four years pursuing a degree.” (07/13/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/07/13/the-opportunity-cost-of-college/
- The Ghost in the State
Source: Liberalism.org
by Michael C Munger“British philosopher Gilbert Ryle famously mocked Descartes’s notion of mind/body dualism, dubbing it ‘the ghost in the machine.’ The mind is in the body, but it’s not of the body. The mind controls the body, independently, ‘everywhere yet nowhere.’ There is a related problem in identifying a ‘will’ in the state: is the state the sort of thing that can have an active, separate will? Or is the will of the state simply the aggregate of individual goals, actions, and votes? The branch of political theory I inhabit, public choice, holds that ghosts don’t exist, because a foundational assumption is methodological individualism. But many people have argued for a romantic, collectivist approach.” (07/13/26)
- The Problem Isn’t Old Public Officials
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“With the death of 71-year-old U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham and the hospitalization of 84-year-old U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, not to mention the 80-year-old President Trump, some commentators are questioning whether it’s a good thing that the federal government has so many senior citizens working in it. … The problem America faces, however, is not the old age of its federal officials but rather the dysfunctional systems that 20th-century and 21st-century Americans have grafted onto the federal government. Those systems have brought failure, death, and destruction of liberty and privacy. The result would be no different if the federal government were being run by people with an average age of 45.” (07/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/07/13/the-problem-isnt-old-public-officials/
- Hiding Racism and Nativism Behind “Heritage American”
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye“Ayn Rand captured the moral bankruptcy of racism better than almost anyone when she wrote that it is ‘the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.’ She understood that racism reduces human beings to representatives of a group, assigning moral, social, and political significance to ancestry rather than treating people as individuals. That’s why phrases like ‘heritage American’ bother me. The phrase is deliberately vague. … Every American has a heritage. The descendants of enslaved people have one. The descendants of Ellis Island immigrants have one. The children of Vietnamese refugees have one. Native Americans certainly have one. Heritage isn’t the distinguishing feature. The phrase only makes sense if ‘heritage’ refers to a particular ancestry that some people believe is more authentically American than others.” (07/13/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/hiding-racism-and-nativism-behind
- While the Political Circus Distracts Us, Flock Builds the Digital Police State
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead“The government is watching. It watches where you go, whom you meet, where you worship, what medical offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, what protests you join, what books you read, what websites you visit and what causes you support. It watches through your phone, your car, your doorbell, your appliances, your purchases, your social media accounts and the cameras positioned along the roads you travel every day. This is how freedom dies in the digital police state: not always through dramatic declarations of martial law or soldiers stationed on every street corner, but through the gradual construction of a technological dragnet—an electronic concentration camp—so pervasive that privacy becomes impossible and anonymity becomes suspicious.” (07/13/26)
- Microlooters and Macrolooters
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“Jennifer Baker, PhD, receives about $100,000 per year in monetary compensation, plus an additional ~$30,000 in benefits. Because she works at a state university—The University of Charleston—supported by both state and federal taxpayers, she is the direct beneficiary of what we might call macrolooting. Her salary depends, at least in part, on compulsory taxation, placing her in the comfortable position of evaluating the ethics of breaching paywalls while leaving the coercive institutions that fund her livelihood unexamined. … ‘let’s turn now to the subject of ‘microlooting.’ Here, Baker opens a recent Psychology Today post. ‘If you deliberately scan one fewer lemon than you are taking at the self-checkout at Whole Foods, you might be ‘microlooting.'” (07/13/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/microlooters-and-macrolooters
- The Good Fight, 07/14/26
Source: Yascha Mounk
“John Harpham on the Intellectual Origins of American Slavery.” (07/14/26)
- Real Unity, 07/13/26
Source: Free the People
“Politics Isn’t Redemptive: The Danger of Political Idolatry | Noelle Fitchett.” (07/13/26)
- The Chris Spangle Show, 07/13/26
Source: We Are Libertarians
“The Declaration of Independence at 250: Dan Miller on America’s Founding.” (07/13/26)
https://www.chrisspangle.com/p/the-declaration-of-independence-at
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 07/13/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Saudis Bomb Sanaa Airport in Yemen, Trump Says US ‘Reinstating’ Blockade of Iran, and More.” (07/13/26)
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/13/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Libertarian Party: What is Legitimate Cause for Disaffiliation.” (07/13/26)
- Reason Roundtable, 07/13/26
Source: Reason
“Did Lindsey Graham Push Trump Toward War?” (07/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/13/did-lindsey-graham-push-trump-toward-war/